Deliverance

The events of the morning of the trip further develop both Ed’s character and the theme of Conflicting Ideals of Masculinity. Ed and his wife make love in a way that he describes as “practical”—an observation that introduces the theme of masculinity in conflict, as Ed is seemingly unfulfilled by the very conventional (e.g., middle-class, heteronormative, etc.) masculinity he embodies. That he sees the gold spot in the model’s eye while making love to his wife suggests that he is seeking but not finding some sort of escape in the act of sex. Ed’s perception of himself in the bathroom mirror further delineates his anxieties about his masculinity—specifically, his youthful virility, as Ed notes the signs of age, observing that the light shines into the thinnest part of his hair. Nevertheless, he takes pride in his solid body, describing hair on his shoulders and back that glows “a soft gray, like monkey fur” (25). The reference to his simian appearance evoke a sense of primal, animalistic heterosexual masculinity. Coming just after his intimacy with his wife and just before his departure for the trip, it suggests that Ed is searching for some means of connecting to a more “authentic” form of masculinity. Ironically, it is precisely these observations about his appearance that the backwoodsmen will mock in Part 3. In that scene, one of the men exclaims that Ed looks “like a goddamned monkey” and is “bald-headed and fat” (104). This event upends the norms of middle-class identity and self-regard established in Part 2 and parodies them through the eyes of the backwoodsmen, suggesting how naive the men’s aspirations to a primal masculine identity were.

Relatedly, Part 2 also develops The Conflict Between Humanity and Nature that is at the heart of the novel and underpins the narrative structure of the descent into the wilderness. As Ed and Lewis drive out of the city toward the small town of Oree, Ed notices the obvious transition between “suburbia” and “the red neck South” (33). Ed enters a dreamlike state, suggesting access to levels of his consciousness that he is not aware of in “civilized” life. Ominously, however, he repeatedly likens sleep and dreams to death. Of his drive with Lewis, for example, he remarks, “I was dead, and riding, which is a special kind of sleep not like any other” (34). Although Ed survives the trip, he does experience a figurative form of death, returning from it with a transformed perspective on the world and himself.

Foreshadowing Ed’s later inability to understand the wilderness without the template of popular images, his dozing prevents him from seeing the increasingly wild landscape. The reader therefore learns about the landscape through the hypermasculine outdoorsman Lewis’s observations, which develop his character and motivations and place him firmly in the leadership role. Lewis observes the difference between urban life and life in the wilderness, suggesting that the whole way of life and living in the mountains is very different from what Ed is used to. Lewis suggests that Ed doesn’t care about how the mountain people may live, and Ed concurs, initiating a conversation about the men’s divergent approaches to living: Where Ed expresses his desire to simply get by day-to-day, Lewis explains that he is preparing for a nuclear apocalypse and that he has a bomb shelter to which he and his wife can retreat. The conversation reveals not only Lewis’s belief that civilization is a veneer that will one day fall apart but also his implicit desire for it to do so; real meaning is only found in the primal struggle to survive, Lewis implies.

In some sense, Lewis’s worldview proves correct, as the friends’ “civilized” personas do slip away when they come into contact with nature’s raw power. However, Lewis is also naïve, particularly when it comes to the people who actually live in close proximity to nature. Lewis is bossy and dismissive when negotiating the transportation of the cars with the Griner brothers; he assures Ed that he understands them, but his belief that they are only motivated by money (rather than, for example, resentment of more privileged outsiders) is classist and condescending. It is only Drew who finds a connection with any of the locals: the young boy who plays banjo with him. The banjo-guitar duet suggests that the local people are not so uncouth as the main characters imagine.

There are inklings of the wilderness the men will encounter in the owl that lands on Drew and Ed’s tent. Its talons pass through the top of the tent, and Ed touches the claw. His interaction with the owl suggests the concrete reality behind the image of nature (Ed’s house has a wind chime featuring a metal owl) and foreshadows Ed’s later depiction as a predator himself.